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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 16, 2015 19:33:57 GMT
For many people, the weekend signaled a time to relax and take in the finer things in life. And on a perfectly sunny, New York City summer day, Riley walked through Central Park with one of her phones (because, yes, she had two) tucked in her ear and a few pieces of paper in her hand as she approached a coffee cart to order two beverages for her and her friend. She smiled pleasantly at the man behind the register even as she turned her attention back to her phone call with a reporter from a local news outlet.
"I'm telling you right now, Ken, that he didn't say that. He did not make a single comment on his opinions on the policy and I can say that to you with certainty because I am holding the fucking transcript in my hand right now and have the recording on my Blackberry. He didn't say it and if you run a story saying that he said it, that would be libel. And while that wasn't my specific concentration while I was in law school, I know a damn thing about it. I will give you a thirty minute sit-down with my candidate when he returns from his trip to Albany if you don't run with this story and I will even have a copy of the transcript messengered to you - I will personally have one of my interns run it to you, on foot, and tell them it's to keep them competitive with the interns at SCOTUS, but I will not let you print a lie. As a personal favor to you, because I like you Ken, but he didn't fucking say it."
She smiled sweetly as she paid for the coffee, tucked her papers into her bag and walked away with the coffee tray, in search of Maddy. "Right now I have half a dozen reporters that want an interview with Garrett, and I'm going to give it to you because you are the only one who hasn't tried to field him a question about our wedding plans, which endears me to you greatly. You have thirty minutes, on the record, to ask about anything you want...but remember I'll have a transcript of that too. The campaign office will speak to you on Monday to schedule the interview."
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Post by Madison Benson on Aug 16, 2015 20:15:32 GMT
Working in the editing world, Madison had found that the more succinct writing could be, the better that it fared. They tossed around the term "Hemingway-style" as an even more succinct manner of explanation. And so sometimes she tried to think of how she would describe the people around her in as few words as possible, whether it was a simple adjective, a cliched phrase, or a quick synopsis. Spotting Riley heading in her direction she was reminded of her own phrase for her - "the oncoming storm". It wasn't because she was a destructive personality, or that she was an unkind person in any way, but it seemed to be the perfect way to summarize the stories of how Riley had stood her own ground throughout law school and into her career.
It was the combination of that confidence, maybe even that power, and the fact that she was simply a wonderfully caring person that made her friendship so important to Maddy. She smiled in greeting and saw that Riley was still on the phone. Not having to work through the weekend was one luxury Madison was pleased to have. "Hi," she said brightly when her friend finally was able to hang up the call. "If one of those are for me, you are my absolute hero," she said, pointing in the direction of the coffee.
"How are you? I'm sure you've been keeping ridiculously busy with everything that's been going on."
Between running a campaign and planning a marriage, she could only imagine the stress that she was feeling. That's why she hoped that these lunch dates and girls' nights provided a sense of relief to get away from it all. Besides, she was sure that was just an awful lot of Garrett to handle.
It wasn't necessarily that Maddy didn't like her friend's fiance, it was just that she had always thought it to be an odd match. He didn't seem to be good enough for Riley - though on paper she was sure he was perfect - but Madison believed in the happily ever afters and the head-over-heels courtships. Then again, maybe it was just not reality to expect pumpkins to turn into carriages.
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 16, 2015 20:28:11 GMT
Riley happily dropped her phone into her bag, eager to forget about it for a blissful break with her longtime friend. Madison had always been kind to her in high school when others weren't and she was always grateful for that. She grinned at Maddy and handed her a coffee. "Things are a bit busy, Garrett is in Albany for an event at the Capitol with the Governor, which I wanted to go to with him because his comments on the Governor have been less than glowing, but he insisted on attending himself while I oversee the campaign and plan the wedding." Riley knew that there were other reasons Garrett had wanted to go alone, but she never really spoke about that.
"But the press is keeping me so busy that I haven't even had the time to think of the wedding, I keep pushing it off until after Election Day," she laughed as she took a sip of her coffee. "But all of that is status quo, what I'm more interested in is you and how you're doing, and how the reunion was." Riley hadn't even bothered to make an excuse for not attending other than the fact that since Garrett was unable to attend, the only good reason to go - earning campaign contributions through socializing - was gone. Instead she'd bunkered down in her apartment with a movie and a pint of ice cream while her fiancee enjoyed a private date night, with the boyfriend she was not supposed to know anything about.
She pushed that thought away and beamed at Maddy, "I mean I've heard a few things, already seen in the papers that a few of my absolute favorite people are back in town. Though, I already knew about Parker because he's been trying like mad to get a sit down meeting with the campaign to see what Garrett's position is on his little start-up. But, and I know it's cruel, whenever one of our old classmates comes knocking on the campaign office door, I just like leaving them out there for a few weeks to dangle and see if they hang themselves before they even get in." She brought up Parker casually, but watched her friend's face for any hint of a reaction.
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Post by Madison Benson on Aug 16, 2015 20:58:29 GMT
Maddy smiled and nodded as she was brought up to speed on everything that had been happening with Riley and her future husband. "I'm not any good at the politics side of things, but if you need anyone to help you pour over wedding magazines, I'm your girl. I'll even bring wine and ice cream, or order Chinese food or something."
She would have been perfectly happy to have continued the conversation in that path, talking about wedding planning and the dresses that Riley would get to try on, the fonts that she would select for the invitations - but instead, Riley brought up the reunion. Madison tried to stay neutral on the matter, refusing to make eye contact as she concentrated much too intently on the top of her cup of coffee. How exactly was one supposed to admit that while the reunion itself wasn't necessarily her best night of the year, it had given her the opportunity to contact Parker, and that in itself had let to abizarre dinner which she refused to call a date. It was just - catching up.
At the sound of his name she flushed, cursing her complexion and her inability to keep her cool. "Yeah, it looks like Amber Jacobs is back for good," she shrugged. "I thought I saw her talking to Brandon Finn when I left so who knows - they might be playing out more high school memories."
Sipping her coffee, she hesitated to continue. "I did happen to have an absolutely wonderful encounter with Olivia Warren," She could feel the sarcasm cutting through the statement. "Which ended with me deciding to leave the reunion pretty quickly after that." She didn't know why she kept feeling like she was an awkward teenager again but she was having a difficult time addressing her friend's own comment about Parker. "I caught up with Parker a little bit too. I actually sat in on a meeting between his company and Harper Collins. We were talking about the potential of digital publications and how we could build some sort of partnership there."
There was no point in mentioning the not-date dinner, she figured. It wasn't as though anything had really happened.
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 16, 2015 21:18:58 GMT
Riley took a sip of her coffee, filing away Amber and Brandon's name away for purely political reasons before she snapped out of it and went back into friend mode. She sometimes missed her ability to put aside work and be a normal human being again, but she was literally about to marry her job. She listened as Maddy brought up Olivia Warren and spoke more about Parker. "He's very charming that Parker, I think it's the accent. He knows it too. Anyway, they're all on the guest list for a fundraiser that's being thrown for the campaign, as are you. I think that you should come and keep me company while I have to brown nose Republicans for their money." While Riley had always been a Democrat, Garrett was not, and she took running a campaign for him as one of the greatest challenges of her young career. It didn't mean she always liked the people involved.
"I'm sure that it will be just as much fun as the reunion, if not moreso because I'll be there," she teased. She was wary of Parker Blye and Maddy. She had known for a long time just how much Parker had effected her friend and she wasn't too keen on his treatment of her. When dealing with him for work, she found him to be an all right guy, but believed her friend deserved better.
"Plus, Garrett's going to be busy nearly the entire night and it should be a light press night for me, so we can actually make it into a girl's night and have a bit of fun," she offered.
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Post by Madison Benson on Aug 16, 2015 21:37:15 GMT
He certainly did know it, Maddy though back to the way that he had done so well at convincing her that he was a better person now. It could have been his way of feeding her all of the lines he knew that she wanted to hear, but she doubted that was truly the case. She wanted to believe that he was a good person so much that she was willing to believe it through ignorance of the facts if she needed to.
"I'm really looking for to it," she confessed, smiling. "I definitely missed having you at the reunion to save me from feeling like I'm seventeen and naive again."
One of the things she had worked hard to change about herself as she got older was her naivety. Coming to terms with the fact that it may never go away completely, she thought she had found a happy medium with where she was now. And in the case where she may have looked too closely at someone's good side, she always had Riley there to bluntly bring her back to reality. She wished that she would have had Riley there with her when she caught up with Parker, she could have used someone to point out when things were too good to be true.
The other positive aspect of the fundraiser was that it gave her the excuse to talk to Parker again. Even if he came back from his trip and didn't call her as he said he would, she knew that she could "accidentally" bump into him, if needed. Not that she would. Unless there was a lot of alcohol being consumed. She flushed, remembering that she told him that stupid story about herself in college. Trying to impress him through stupid drunken acts of her late adolescence had probably not been the best idea.
"We need to really schedule more girl's nights," she added. "I need to live vicariously through you, after all. You're the one with the exciting job and the high profile wedding coming up. Especially if Garrett wins."
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 16, 2015 23:13:05 GMT
Riley laughed softly at Madison. "Maddy, there's a difference between being kind and being naive, you wouldn't have gotten so far in life already if you were naive. Plus, sometimes men make us stupid for better or worse. I should warn you that Olivia is on the guest list for the fundraiser and will say that I had absolutely no say on who made the guest list. Though I do have free reign to remove her, I mean I don't even think she can or would vote in an election for state politics, and she certainly isn't doing anything for Garrett's future diplomatic and international pursuits," Riley teased. "But I want to warn you that she's been invited, and then promise you that I'll be around to keep everyone in line."
Ten years ago, Riley had been much less confident. She'd won school council elections because many of her fellow students weren't really interested in running or voting. She sort of believed that was true now, but law school and the world of politics had changed her. She still tried to be a good person, to work towards causes she believed in and she wanted to make a positive impact on the world. But she knew that the ways of getting change to happen weren't always pretty and her life and very mode of being was often very chaotic.
"But I'm all for girl's night. Sometimes a few of the kids at the campaign office go out and they're always begging me to join them. You sing karaoke one time and they forget the hierarchy of the office," she laughed. "As for the wedding, it's really something I have to put on the back burner until after the election. Garrett thinks otherwise, but he's the one with the nice smile and I'm the one with the campaign tactics."
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Post by Madison Benson on Aug 16, 2015 23:32:55 GMT
She hoped that what Riley said was true and that she wasn't as naive as she thought she was. It gave her a little more sense of confidence in trusting Parker to be a better person, and for trusting herself to not be so easily swayed. It wasn't just her personal life that she sometimes worried about, it was her career. The world of publishing was a lot more brutal than she was anticipating, and while she kept trying to hold her own, there were certainly days where she came home and parked it in front of Netflix with a bottle of wine and second guessed every decision she had ever made.
Riley had helped with that. Whenever she needed to be reminded that she was stronger than she expected, kinder than she expected, she had Riley to shake some sense into her.
"I'm not sure Olivia has anything to really torment me about now," she shrugged. "But who knows? I can't even begin to guess what goes through that head of hers."
She looked at her friend for a moment before nodding understandingly. Writing it off as just having other obligations and things to worry about, she tried not to focus on the fact that Riley hadn't seemed at all excited about her upcoming wedding. Madison thought that if it had been her she might have already have started clipping photos out of magazines, pasting everything together into a binder of some sort and set to making it all happen. But again, they were two very different people. Which is probably why their friendship had lasted past college.
"Kids these days." She laughed, thinking of how they were suddenly in a weird place where they weren't the youngest group of people in their careers anymore. "But really, if you ever need a break from the campaign, you know where to find me."
Not only did she want to be there for her friend, but she had a sinking feeling that she was going to need a friend to talk to soon. Regardless of whether or not Parker called soon.
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 17, 2015 0:09:18 GMT
Riley smiled broadly at Maddy and took another sip of her coffee. It was hot and so was the weather, but coffee was the nectar of the gods as far as she was concerned and given the fact that she was due back at the campaign office and not at her own apartment in a few hours, she was going to need as much caffeine as she could get.
Part of her loved Maddy for her kindness. While she thought herself a good person, sometimes she had trouble separating her work self from her regular self. One did not swim with sharks in law school and politics by being kind. When her world seemed hectic, Maddy brought her back down and for that she was grateful - and also protective. While she liked Parker enough and thought that she might even throw him a bone and have Garrett back legislation in favor of his company, but that didn't mean that she trusted him with Maddy.
But she wasn't one to interfere, so she would watch as things proceeded and if necessary remind Parker Blye that she could make his life completely hellish. "We should have a movie night after the fundraiser, there should be a considerable lull in the news cycle once that's done, provided no one goes off the rails and everyone behaves," no sooner were the words out of her mouth that she pursed her lips and frowned. "Actually, we might have to have it the next weekend," she laughed.
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Post by Madison Benson on Aug 17, 2015 0:57:31 GMT
She smiled back, "That sounds wonderful! Let me know what works for your schedule and I'll have the wine and junk food ready for us. We'll watch as many trashy romantic comedies as possible."
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